Designer, manager, painter, perfumer — the long version.
Hi, I’m John Biebel
A designer and manager with over fifteen years creating engaging, meaningful experiences for software users.
I also manage other UX professionals to develop their own careers as practitioners. I hold a BFA with distinction in Painting and Photography from The Cooper Union, on full scholarship, which still shapes how I think about composition and what someone notices first.
My career runs through Monster.com, Red Hat, Aspen Tech, and Intralinks, then a decade at Pearson Education leading a team across nine learning applications — rising from Senior UX Designer to Design Supervisor to UX Manager. I’m currently Product Design Senior Manager at Imprivata, leading a team of seven across identity governance for healthcare access.
Creative Practice
Design has always been part of a larger creative practice for me. Outside of product work, I continue to explore painting, writing, fragrance, and visual culture. These disciplines may seem separate, but they are connected by the same questions: What draws attention? What creates meaning? What makes an experience memorable?
Where Design Meets Art and Fragrance
Outside of product design and UX leadership, I maintain a broad creative practice that includes fragrance, writing, painting, and design community work.
I run January Scent Project, an independent fragrance studio based in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Through the studio, I create original perfumes that are sold internationally and have been recognized by publications including The New York Times. This work allows me to explore scent as another form of experience design — one shaped by memory, emotion, atmosphere, and material detail.
Design Leadership Rooted in Craft
John’s work brings together product strategy, visual design, usability, and team leadership. Across more than fifteen years in UX and product design, he has helped shape digital experiences for complex software products used by real people in demanding environments.
His approach is grounded in clarity, structure, and attention to detail. Whether designing an interface, guiding a product direction, or mentoring another designer, John focuses on making experiences easier to understand, more meaningful to use, and more thoughtfully built.
